Hockley
on the right, now demolished, standing close to the Sand Pits estate towers in Ladywood complex of Edgbaston. View of Icknield Street Ring Road looking south-wards.]] Hockley is an inner-city area 1 mile to the North-West of Birmingham city centre in the West Midlands. It forms part of the concrete collar around the city centre. To the south is Ladywood, south-east is Jewellery Quarter, east is Newtown, north-east is Lozells, north is Handsworth, north-west is Gib Heath, west is All Saints and south-west is Winson Green. Hockley has a rich industrial heritage and is one of the oldest parts of the city, with many buildings still standing from over 100 years ago. It was also part of the wider redevelopment plan for Birmingham however after the two World Wars, with extensive bomb damage from the Birmingham Blitz and also severe poverty in the back-to-back slum housing. As the slums were being cleared, a new Ring Road dual-carriageway was constructed around the city centre for better functioning of traffic, along with new post war housing. The old Brookfields corner of Hockley was the main featured area in the groundbreaking BBC documentary 'Come Home Cathy', showing the perils of life in the lost transitions between slum housing and new streets in the sky being constructed in the 60's and 70s, with many families being broken apart by the system. Yardley in east Birmingham was also shown in the program with families being moved further afield in an ever expanding West Midlands Metropolis. Three tower blocks were constructed in Hockley, which sat on the north-south split of the concrete collar around Birmingham, sometimes known as Saucer City. Two of the towers were built in the Aston new town complex of high-rise apartments on the north-side of Birmingham, situated in the Newtown cluster. While the third tower was built in the Edgbaston new town complex on the south-side of the city, situated in the Ladywood cluster virtually next to the Sand Pits estate. These formed part of the 73 tower blocks constructed in the Aston District on the north-side of Birmingham city centre (3 being student accommodation in Gosta Green, recently demolished as part of Aston University's revamp) and also formed part of the 114 tower blocks constructed in the Edgbaston District on the south-side of Birmingham city centre (3 which are student accommodation, 2 of these in Chad Valley and 1 in Belleview / Benmore Avenue estate). It must be noted that a huge amount of these towers have been detonated since the 1990s as a city-wide effort for a better tomorrow, with the remainder being refurbished over time. One tower remains standing as of 2015 in the Newtown cluster after fairly recent demolition work, with a Tesco superstore now open and its car park on the site of the demolished tower near Sand Pits. The names of the three towers were Dorset Tower, Cornwall Tower and Norfolk Tower. A main railway and metro line cut through Hockley on their way to Wolverhampton via West Bromwich from Snow Hill station. Only the Metro line remains on this course though with the railway line having closed down and the Metro line fulfilling transport needs to the Black Country. The railway line does exist however on its split southwards from The Hawthorns football stadium (West Bromwich Albion) and passes through Galton Bridge in Smethwick, Rowley Regis in Oldbury, Old Hill in Cradley Heath, Lye and Stourbridge Junction. Another feature of the area is the Hockley Flyover dual carriageway, which straddles elevated on concrete pillars on the north-side of Hockley for a few hundred metres, connecting the city centre to Handsworth. North of the Hockley Flyover is Newtown and Lozells. A festival is now held annually under the flyover to celebrate the city and bring together surrounding communities with other citizens. Different tastes of Music, Foods and Arts are showcased with a bohemian feel bought in from the creative hub of Digbeth near the city centre. It has been a huge success so far after doubts were initially raised concerning old hostilities between the wider areas of Aston and Handsworth. List of Hockley tower blocks * Dorset Tower (demolished) * Cornwall Tower (demolished) * Norfolk Tower